“I want us to get past this, to see if there’s a chance for us. I don’t need revenge—I need you. What’s been done to me can’t be changed. I am who I am because of what I went through. If the man I am could be good enough for the princess, then everything that has happened would be worthwhile.”
“I’m not a princess,” she whispered.
“You are to me.” Dev clasped both of her hands in his, holding them against his chest. “Is there a place for me in this new life of yours, Lacey?”
Heart in his throat, he waited for her answer.
Her fingers gripped his. “I’ve waited all my life for you, Dev. Since I was sixteen years old, every man I’ve known has been measured against you.”
Deep inside Dev, a dark ache eased and hope flickered.
Then her eyes turned sad. “But I still have a lot to figure out and maybe you don’t want—” She started to move away.
“I want,” Dev growled, pulling her tightly into his body with shocking suddenness. “You have no idea how I want.”
He covered her mouth with a kiss so hot, so possessive, that Lacey melted against him. Her thoughts evaporated in the heat and sweetness that suffused her every pore. Soon she was twining her arms around him, trying to get closer, feeling again the hunger of their night to remember, the night of magic.
Dev lifted her into his arms and strode toward the bedroom. He ended a scorching kiss, his voice fierce. “I want you. The real Lacey, not her money, not her fancy address. The girl who climbed down a trellis with me, and the woman she’s become.” Those brilliant green eyes singed down to her soul.
For a moment, time seemed to stop, and she savored it, realizing that her whole life had just changed, her whole world just shifted. Part of her wanted the world to freeze so that she could live in this moment forever.
Part of her was eager to see what came next.
Then Dev lowered her to lavender silk, holding her close as he followed her down, settling his hard body over hers, his eyes naked as they’d once been in a moonlit gazebo.
“I love you, Dev.” She’d waited a lifetime to say the words.
So close. Dev shuddered as the realization battered. He’d come so close to losing her, yet by some miracle he’d escaped with a second chance.
“I love you, too.” His throat seized. “You, Lacey, the real you. For always.”
“We’re going to make it this time, aren’t we?” Her eyes were huge and luminous as moonlight shifted over their bodies.
His answer was a vow dragged up from the bedrock of his soul. “If I have to battle the devil himself, nothing is ever going to part us again. No one, Lacey. Believe that. I’m so damn grateful that—” He didn’t have the words he needed to tell her how deep inside him she lived.
Lacey brushed her fingers over his beloved face, her once-empty heart full to bursting. “I believe you. Oh, Dev…I need you so. I’ve missed you for so long.”
She pressed herself against him and for a moment, they simply clung.
Bereft of words, Dev decided to let his body speak for him, his touch tell her that she was…everything. With more care than ever, Dev bent to savor her, the taste of her, the silk of her skin. He couldn’t get enough. Would never get enough of her.
And Lacey gave herself up to the man who’d given her the dream, who had seen past the surface down to her most vulnerable self—and loved her anyway.
She shivered as his mouth branded her skin. She’d been so hollowed out. So lost. Now she had so much.
A family, brothers and sister.
A man to love, the man of her dreams.
Then Dev’s magical hands and restless mouth deprived her of thought. Gentleness vanished beneath a warrior’s possession, a sorcerer’s touch. Madness seized them both, fierce in its wonder.
With a sigh of relief, Lacey let go of decorum, cast away polite manners. The princess climbed down the trellis from her prison.
Waiting below was a daredevil knight on a black charger, his green eyes hot with power and passion.
The real Lacey jumped, knowing that Dev would always catch her.
Epilogue
Morning Star, Texas
Two weeks later
From the front of the old country church, Dev watched Lacey walk down the aisle first, Maddie following her as matron of honor at Mitch and Perrie’s wedding.
Lacey caught his eye and winked, and Dev winked back, his heart soaring. He would never get tired of this new Lacey who laughed so freely, who was learning to tease and play. When she slid her tongue across those lush lips while staring straight at him, it was all Dev could do not to stride across the church and grab her right now—and to blazes with anyone who might protest.